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Monday, September 21, 2015

Brewery: Old North BrewingStyle: Belgian-Style DubbelBrewed On: 12.27.2014 (best guess)Bottled On: 01.24.2015ABV: 6.5%This was the first beer I brewed on my current setup. I was really excited to be able to perform multi-step mashes with no risk of scorching grain, but I might have gone a bit overboard with this mash schedule. I don't have my notes of the day of brewing, but I remember having quite a bit of difficulty with this process. Part of the problem was definitely from failing to pre-heat my mash tun. I learned my lesson and always heat my mash tun with about a gallon of boiling water while I bring my brewing water up to strike temperature.Despite struggling to hit most of my mash numbers, this beer came out quite well. The recipe was lifted from BYO's clone of the Spencer Trappist Ale but with some modifications based on the availability of ingredients and to reflect some of the peculiarities of my system. I enjoyed the concept of this beer as an American take (with many American ingredients) on an age-old Belgian tradition.I remember this being an excellent, malty beer, having a nice dry finish (FG was 1.008!). There was slightly more hop presence in this beer than many other Dubbels, but it seemed that the first wort hopping kept the bitterness well integrated (or does it?) and as none of the hops were outrageously citrusy and instead reflected the herbal, grassy, spicy characteristics of hops traditionally used in trappist and trappist-style beers, it worked quite well. The aroma of the Abbey Ale yeast used came through as a mild stone fruitiness and white pepper notes. I don't recall much more about this beer, but will likely brew again sometime near the end of this upcoming winter.As a wink towards the religious affiliation of the brewers, as well as the "heretical" use of many American ingredients in this beer, we named it Heretic, and often referred to it as our Protestant abbey ale. Recipe

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Batch Size: 5 gallons into fermentor

Measured OG: 1.058

Anticipated IBUs: 25

Anticipated SRM: 5.3

Actual Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.5%

Boil Time: 90 mins

Malt

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80% [9.0#] - Avangard Pilsner Malt

18% [2.0#] - American Pale Malt (2-row)

2% [0.25#] - Caramel 60L

Hops

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6.65 AAU [0.50 oz, 13.3%] - Nugget - First Wort Hop

1.18 AAU [0.25 oz, 4.70%] - Willamete @ 10 mins

Extras

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0.5 Whirlfloc tablets @ 15 mins

0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 mins

Yeast

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1 package of White Labs WLP5300 "Abbey Ale"

Water

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Winston Salem, NC municipal water

1 tsp Calcium Chloride

Mash

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Step-Infusion Mash (Adding hot water)

148 F for 75 minutes w/ 12.2 qt of water @ 166.5F

162 F for 15 minutes by adding 9 qt of water @ 185.5 F

Mash out at 168 F by adding 10.12 qt of water @ 182.5 F

Fly-Sparge with 2.26 gallons of water @ 168 F

Notes

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Fermented in a soft-sided cooler with frozen bottles to hold down temperature. Averaged 72 F through the fermentation.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

This is my first attempt at brewing one of my very favorite styles - the slightly tart, funky Farmhouse Ale. I've brewed several clean Farmhouse Ales, and done some fermentations with oddball yeasts, but this is my first time deliberately infecting my wort with lactic acid bacteria (LAB).

The recipe for this beer was completely on the fly. I realized that my local home-brew store was closing in less than an hour and I wasn't going to be able to get in before my Labor Day brew day. So I ran in sans recipe and threw together a quick saison grain bill. It is close to my old favorite saison grain bill, but I wish it had about a pound more rye malt in it. The torrified wheat is for head retention. I also decided to add 5 IBUs of Willamette (a hop hiding in my freezer since I brewed a Belgian abbey beer at the end of last year) to give myself just a little protection against major spoilage-causing bacteria.

I followed most of the best-practices I've developed for my system over the last year, including a simple batch spare, frequently stirring the mash, and preheating the mash tun with about a gallon of boiling water. This let me hit my target mash temperature spot on with only a few seconds of stirring.

The only glitch I ran into was that I added too much lactic acid, and dropped the mash pH all the way to 5.0! I sprinkled a bit of baking soda in to counteract this mistake, and the mash pH settled at 5.4 within the first 10 minutes of the 75 minute mash. Thankful that my water has such a low residual alkalinity.

In addition to the Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces in WLP670, I pitched the dregs of Prairie Artisan Ale's Americana, a really great American farmhouse, conditioned with Brett and dry-hopped. I'm hoping that the extra biodiversity helps create some extra layers of complexity and funk. I avoided pitching any sour farmhouse ales (even though that is what I was shooting for) to try and avoid accidentally picking up some Pediococcus. I want to keep the turn-around for this beer down to 4-6 months and avoid the extended aging Pedio fermentations require to hit their stride (that is coming up soon, stay tuned).

Instead, I got the souring organisms from the grains themselves. I made a 1 L starter of unhooked 1.038 gravity wort in a 2 L erlenmeyer flask and pitched in a cup of 2-row pale malt. This sat on a heating pad for 2 days, and smelled like strong greek yogurt or sour cream when I pitched in into my wort. This got a 5 hour head start on the rest of the yeasts, so I'm hoping it turns out a subtle acidity. I want tart, not melt-yo-face.

I dropped the pH of the wort to 4.4 before pitching the LAB in the hopes of slowing down the proteolytic activity of the Lactobacillus and keep the bacteria from breaking down all of the head-causing proteins in the wort. For more information see here.

09.07.2015 - Brew Day. Overshot mash pH to 5.0. Added 1/4 tsp more Baking Soda to raise mash pH to 5.4. Stirred mash every 15 minutes to maximize efficiency. After boil, chilled to 100 F and dropped the wort pH to a pH of 4.4 using 88% lactic acid. Pitched starter of lactic acid bacteria. Placed in fermentation chamber to slowly drop to 68 F over the next 5 hours. Removed from fermentation chamber and pitched WLP670 and bottle dregs.09.21.2015 - Two weeks out I decided to take my first sample. pH has dropped to 4.0 and gravity is down to 1.003. No pellicle has formed and signs of visible fermentation have disappeared. Aromatically the sample has some pilsen grainy-ness and a subtle lemon aroma. Hits the palate with some juiciness from the lactic acid, and a bit of belgian farmhouse earthiness. Not much else going on with this beer so far, not that I expected a ton. Time to settle down for a long wait.10.07.2015 - One month out. The brett character is just starting to show up as a subtle strawberry flavor that goes really nicely with the lactic tartness of this beer. It's really starting to develop nicely, and I'm starting to get really excited about where this beer is going. I rescued a vial of WLP645 Brettanomyces claussenii from my local home-brew store's bin of old vials, and pitched that in too. There should still be enough active cells going in there to make a difference in the beer. I'm hoping that the Brett c. together with the Americana dregs and whatever species of Brett is in the WLP670 combine forces to bring a nice blanket of funk. I won't be disappointed if the claussenii brings some nice fruity pineapple aromas to the show.

10.12.2015 - Pitched some dregs from Green Bench's Saison De Banc Vert for good measure.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Brewery: Old North BrewingStyle: India Pale Ale Brewed On: 08.16.2015Kegged On: 09.01.2015OG: 1.060 (after dilution from 1.063)FG: 1.009ABV: 6.7%Appearance: Completely opaque. Ridiculously so. Big, sticky off-white head hang around for quite a while. Nice tight bubble structure. When not in good light, the beer appears a bit brown. In good light it's nice and orange.Smell: My wife said "This smells like sunshine!" when I handed her a sample. I'm inclined to agree. Huge citrus aroma. Layers of mandarin, tangerine, meyer lemon, starfruit, mango, and a hint of pine. Just layers of tasty citrusy hops.Taste: The caramel 40 gives this a bit too much of a malt flavor for my preferences. Other than that, this is a great beer. Bitterness stands nicely among a storm of hop flavors. As the beer warms the flavors evolve from orange juice to mangoes and tangerines. Oatmeal flavor is present as well, but in the background.Mouthfeel: Thick. Like so thick. Nearly milkshake thick. This beer is thicker than some stout's I've had. Also super creamy. Carbonation (at 2.2 vols) is nice. Overall: Great beer. Next time I brew, there will certainly be a few tweaks to the malt bill to rebalance some flavors. But I really like this IPA.Wow. So in some ways this beer completely blew away my expectations. In fact, some things ended up being a bit too much. I didn't know that was possible.The mouthfeel of this body rivals many stouts I've had. It's ridiculous. I love it, and at the same time I think I might have gone a bit overboard. It's like a hoppy, citrusy milkshake. When I brew this beer again, I plan to reduce the oatmeal content to something like 0.5-1 # (still around 5-10 % of the grain bill) and add in around 0.5 # of wheat malt as well. The caramel 40 is a bit too much as well, and I think I will go with caramel 20 or carared next time around. I think this will bring the body a little more inline with what I had in mind. I definitely will have to refine the malt bill of this recipe in the next few iterations to really nail my vision of this beer.The water chemistry seems to have been a huge success. There is a certain creaminess about this beer that can't be attributed solely to the flaked oats. The hop aromas are way more in-your-face and the flavors are really nice, but the bitterness melds nicely into the background, supporting but not overwhelming.I think with a few tweaks this beer will be absolutely amazing. Recipe and brew log may be found here.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Brewery: Old North BrewingStyle: India Wild AleDate Brewed: 04.26.2014Date Bottled: 06.02.2014OG: 1.061FG: 1.007 (estimated)ABV: 7.1%Appearance: Super pale yellow, with a heavy cloudiness. Wheat + a yeast that just doesn't want to flocc. Almost looks like a berliner weisse with a huge head of foam.Smell: Originally this beer had an absurdly huge nose of fresh tropical fruit and juicy citrus. The aged version developed much more of an over-ripe fruit aroma, stopping just short of full on funky. This is similar to, but far milder than many Brett beers I've had, and lets you know that this yeast is definitely not tame.Taste: Again, very juicy. with a firm bitterness and dry finish. The aged version has evolved into something with less bitterness, and more of a funky/juicy finish that lingers for days. I get spicey clove notes, something that is almost horse-blanket esque without actually smelling like a horse (if that makes any sense at all), and tons of overripe mangoes, bananas, starfruit, meyer lemon, and mandarins.Mouthfeel: Dry and crisp. I nailed the carbonation level of this one, with a hug billowy head that settles into a nice prickly carbonation that isn't too much, but makes this beer feel like a lot less than 7.3% abv.Overall: A delicious beer, new or aged. I loved the evolution this beer went through over the last year.In order to flesh out my blog just a bit more, I've decided to post some of my old favorite beers. The brew notes might not be as complete as some more recent beers, and the tasting notes will often be from memory, but these are some of my favorite beers I've ever brewed.First up out of the archives is my first attempt at a 100% Brett fernentation. Little did I know that WLP 644 was a wild Saccharomyces masquerading as Brettanomyces. No bother though, as this beer turned out excellent. I sat on a single bottle of this, which I recently opened and took some tasting notes of. The beer definitely evolved over its life, but it also seems this yeast has excellent oxygen scavenging characteristics, as some hop flavor (though sadly little aroma) has hung around for over a year in the bottle.I layered in the Citra, Centennial, and Chinook, to get a complex hop aroma with lots of citrus, spice, and floral notes. The malt bill was designed to be a sort of "white" ipa - heavy on wheat malt to lend some body to what I anticipated would be a very dry beer. I designed the whole recipe hoping to stay out of the way of the aromas of the yeast, huge amounts of overripe tropical fruit.This was my first "huge success" as a home brewer. Of course I have many tweaks to make to this beer, and it turns out it isn't 100% Brettanomyces but it was delicious, and it really got me excited about brewing with odd-ball yeasts and other bugs.Recipe